Obama’s right on bin Laden photos

Our opinion: There are some good reasons to not release death photos of the world’s most notorious terrorist, and some bad arguments for doing so.

As journalists, we don’t often find ourselves agreeing with a government decision to not release information. We also tend to be skeptical of government claims that aren’t backed up by evidence that we can see.

That said, in the case of death photos of Osama bin Laden, we can pass. President Obama has made a compelling case to withhold them. And we have yet to hear a more compelling reason for their release. For that matter, we’ve heard some pretty bad ones.

Perhaps the worst comes from those like Sarah Palin, yet another potential presidential contender looking to raise her fading profile. The former Alaska governor offered this bit of foreign policy strategy in a Twitter tweet, “Show photo as warning to others seeking America’s destruction.”

Does Ms. Palin realize just how barbaric she is asking this nation to be? Exploiting a corpse — even a photo of one — as a message to our enemies? Would she have America be no better than the terrorists who posted videos of beheadings of Americans like businessman Nick Berg and journalist Daniel Pearl? Or the Iraqi mob that hung the charred, mutilated bodies of American contractors from a bridge in Fallujah?

Surely America is better than that. Mr. Obama is right: “We don’t trot out this stuff as trophies.”

He makes a credible case, too, that these photos would only arouse anti-American sentiment and violence abroad.

For those who don’t believe bin Laden is really dead, we ask: Where then is the world’s most formerly wanted terrorist — a man who could deal a serious blow to America’s stability by turning up alive right now?

This all comes down, it seems, to quelling yet another challenge to the President’s veracity from those who either don’t trust him, don’t like him or make a living stirring up those who feel that way.

But the reality is, photos will no more settle their doubts, real or contrived, than the release of his birth certificate satisfied “birthers” who still insist that Mr. Obama isn’t a natural born American, legally qualified to be president. The doubters, a Zogby poll found, include 16 percent of voters, 30 percent of Republicans and 34 percent of conservatives. This is not about facts.

To be sure, the administration isn’t helping its case when it keeps revising its original account of the raid on bin Laden’s Pakistan hideout. It would have been far better to let the fog clear and have the details straight in the first place, although the delay, of course, undoubtedly also would have fed conspiracy theories, too.

There may well come a time, sooner or later, when America has some distance from this killing, that bin Laden’s death photos will be released, or leaked. They’ll be a hot item for a news cycle, a portrait for pithy T-shirts for a while after that, maybe a recruiting tool for al-Qaida. After a time, they’ll go into the web galleries of other infamous corpses, like Che Guevara, Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger and Pol Pot, for the curious to gawk at and chuckle over how uncivilized things must have been back then, when people liked to show off pictures of their kill, even when it was human.

to gunga dan: dude, no one has to stir up anything about Palin – she does it herself everytime she tweets something. As soon as she shuts up, she’ll be forgotten. Sarah thrives on attention whether it’s positive or negative.

Anything Sarah says these days is off the charts – she’s going crazy because she can’t cut down Bachmann and Trump for stealing her thunder.

As said since the beginning… al Qaeda and/or the Taliban will confirm bin Laden’s death – which they did today. BL’s courier won’t be making scheduled pickups/drops. I don’t know how they’d know he’s dead vs. captured (unless a witness tells them), but the US got BL and his show’s canceled.

Listen, with all the bloody games our children play, with all of hollywood’s blooy horror movies, do you really think that we would be upset about some blood? Do you really think the muslim’s are going to think any different? They are more relief than you think. And, do you really believe that the idiot that told Obama that we must give him a buried the muslim way was educated in Islam? You come from the earth and you are buried into the earth, that is Islam. It is an abomination to bury a muslim in the sea. So, please, give me a break. This is beginning to sound more and more like a movie. The wife that was shot is not allowed to speak to the american media, not allowed to give her roots- family roots- to us. Something smell “fraud” about this.

The Abu Ghraib pictures caused anti-American sentiment and violence abroad, yet you lefties pushed for the release anyway because Bush was in office. And not a PEEP from the left about the Rolling Stone pics of American troops killing Afghan civilians. The double standard with the left is toxic. Release the photo and move on.

There’s no valid reason not to release the photos. We don’t want to inflame the arab street? BS. First of all, the arab street is always inflamed over something. What difference does it make. Secondly, there are enough real-looking faked photos of a dead Bin Laden out there that the real ones won’t inflame passions any more than they already are.

The supposed reason given for a raid vs bombing the place to smithereens is that we needed proof that we got him. Fine. Then give us the proof!

Ed Tourge – Had the killing of these civilians been a policy handed down from the top, and not the actions of an individual, or a small number of individuals in a combat zone, then maybe we might have the degree of anger we have against a former president who now cannot leave the country for fear of being arrested for what clearly were planned and sanctioned from the top, WAR CRIMES. Give me a freaking break!